Posted in: AMC, Opinion, TV, TV, Walking Dead | Tagged: amc, Daryl Dixon, norman reedus, opinion, The Walking Dead, TWD

The Walking Dead Fans Owe Norman Reedus & Melissa McBride An Apology

Now that we know Melissa McBride will be joining Norman Reedus on The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, where are all of the apologies?

While the images had been rumbling around social media for a week or so, it was The Walking Dead: Dead City star Jeffrey Dean Morgan who confirmed the good news on Thursday. Yup, Melissa McBride's Carol would be joining Norman Reedus' Daryl Dixon on Daryl's upcoming spinoff series. And based on the response to our reporting, it looks like a lot of folks were happy to hear that – which is great. But, like Morgan, we can't quite yet get past all of the hate that Reedus, EP Scott M. Gimple, and others were victim to when the word first came down that McBride wouldn't initially be joining the series. All of a sudden, conspiracies started getting thrown around that Reedus was making some kind of "diva" move, making production demands that would've made it impossible for McBride to take part. Of course, it didn't matter that Reedus and others attempted to respond in a way that tried to offer hope without playing too much of their storyline hand – a juicy conspiracy will always gain better traction than the truth – the truth isn't always "sexy." So much so that Morgan took to social media to defend Reedus & McBride from all of the toxicity.

So now that McBride's back and it's sounding more and more like – surprise, surprise – like this was part of a "bigger picture" plan – where are all of the apologies? Because Reedus, McBride, and a lot of others deserve it from a section of the fanbase that made too many assumptions and then mixed in some way-over-the-top anger – the makings of a nasty cocktail, as we saw. Or maybe, instead of an apology? The same folks who had the torches & pitchforks out make a promise that the next time something like this comes up? They pause, take a deep breath, and give things a little time to play out. Here's a look at Morgan's tweet, joining the TWD universe in being excited about what those two being reunited could mean moving forward:

And here's a look back at the behind-the-scenes teaser that was released (with an extended preview set to debut during this weekend's episode of The Walking Dead: Dead City), followed by a look back at what we know so far:

The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2?

Previously, series stunt professional Frederic Guerin took to social media to signal that work on a second season was already underway. Now, hold on for a second… we need to make sure that wasn't announced already. Nope, it wasn't. If that's the case, it would appear that the spinoff received a quiet renewal to allow for two six-episode seasons to run production-wise at the same time. With the final season of Fear the Walking Dead already underway and The Walking Dead: Dead City now hitting, "The Year of 'The Walking Dead'" is just starting to heat up. Here's a look at the screencap of what Guerin posted to Instagram Stories, with Google Translate to blame in case we're getting a misread on what's posted:

In AMC & AMC+'s The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, Daryl (Reedus) washes ashore in France and struggles to piece together how he got there and why. The series tracks his journey across a broken but resilient France as he hopes to find a way back home. As he makes the journey, though, the connections he forms along the way complicate his ultimate plan. The series stars Reedus, Clémence Poésy, Adam Nagaitis, Anne Charrier, Eriq Ebanouey, Laika Blanc Francard, Romain Levi, and newcomer Louis Puech Scigliuzzi and is executive produced by Gimple, Showrunner David Zabel, Reedus, Greg Nicotero, Angela Kang, Brian Bockrath, and Daniel Percival.

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